Pull out the red carpet

The writer's strike is over, so you know what that means; we had an excuse to get all dolled up again for Oscar Night.

As you may recall from my Golden Globes post, award show nights are worth celebrating in my household. It's like a family tradition, and last Sunday was no exception.

The ladies in the house (the men would prefer to wear their usual casual attire) pull out the old formal stash from my mom's closet (dresses my sisters and I wore in the past to homecomings, proms, weddings, etc.) and pose for a picture on a stretch of fabric we like to call our red carpet.

Unfortunately, my sisters were camera shy for fear of ending up on my blog (what would make them think that?). But, my husband came through in this pic (like I said before, the males have absolutely no interest in putting on a tux or a suit for the occasion).

Now, I can see why they might be hesitant to put their photo up on this site for the world to see. In retrospect, I could've taken a tip from the celebrities and wore some Spanx underneath my gown, or at least opted to have the photo shot before I ate my fill of dinner (it's very reminiscent of the photo from the year I was pregnant with my son, except I had bleached blond hair and a fake-and-bake tan. No, I did not know I was expecting at the time).

Speaking of dinner, we always have an h'orderve theme for our award night meal. It's nothing fancy, just something to suit everyone's tastes. For instance, the little ones like chicken nuggets and tater tots, while the older folks prefer mozzarella sticks and quesadillas.

Thank goodness, my mom always picks up fruit and veggie trays, and I also bring my own contributions to the spread. This time, I made raw crab cakes (or crabby patties, as my son would say) with cashew-based tarter sauce and marinated/dehydrated asparagus spears. I also whipped up some more chocolate fondue for dipping the fruit (my new favorite treat).

After our meal (although we continue to snack throughout the evening), we fill out our official Oscar ballots to determine who gets to decide what we will have for dinner next Sunday (we have a family meal together every weekend. I wish more people had time to do this). I didn't do so well this year, so there goes my hopes of an all-raw meal for everyone.

But don't worry about me; I'll just bring along my usual "rawified" version of whatever the winner choses.

The rest of the evening resulted in the grownups watching the awards while the kids acted out scenes from their favorite flicks (in this case, movies from the "Star Wars" prequels). My son even dressed up like a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (this is his favorite scene) for the occasion.

In my opinion, he looked like a little "Karate Kid," especially when my nephew would set up the Jenga blocks for him to knock down. He was so quick that I was unable to get a shot of it.

However, I did snap this pic of his kiss goodnight. It really was a good night :-)